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An essay on the florida everglades
An essay on the florida everglades
Introduction to florida everglades
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The Everglades' Ecosystem
The Everglades is a large marshland containing different ecosystems that mesh together.
The area has been turned into a wildlife preserve to help maintain those ecosystems. The
Everglades is changing drastically because of human interference, and the wildlife has to adapt to rapid changes in their environment, which has caused it to become a National Park to prevent such changes as well as stop the introduction of exotic plant-life and animals into the Everglades.
Anne Ake's research explains that the Everglades has changed dramatically since the human settlers arrived. For years, fires were common and healthy for the environment. But when the settlers cleared out land with massive fires, the environment took a little longer to recuperate. But as the population grew, such large fires were seen as a danger to society and were prevented from ever happening. This meant that now there would be no fire to help new plant life grow. Then the settlers grew crops, and to solve the issues of droughts and floods, they redirected the river to suit their crops' needs. This meant the once meandering rivers and streams no longer got to filter the fertilizers from the farmers' crops, and were dumped directly into the Everglades. The fertilizers caused algae to grow, and when the algae withered and sunk to the bottom, it caused the oxygen levels to drop. This killed fish and created less of a food source for the animals that ate fish as their primary food source (13-14).
The second point of research is about the landscape of the Everglades and how it affects the ecosystem. The land's incline prevents some areas to receive and maintain a water level enough to support lush plant life. The water that sli...
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...y have, but since the wildlife's population has dropped, it makes it easier for the ecosystem to maintain a balance that the wildlife can survive in (Threats to the Ecosystem).
In conclusion, the Everglades' ecosystem, once a thriving expanse of marshland that spanned millions of acres, is now a mere 1,800 mile National Park, dedicated to preventing the species living in it, be they plant or animal, from going extinct. The ecosystem is constantly fluctuating due to canals that have been dug to redirect water, which prevents the natural filtering the winding canals would give, for the fertilizers farmers use to grow crops. Which has caused algae to grow in the Everglades. Humans have also prevented natural fires from occurring and have introduced unnatural things that don't belong, such as exotic animals and plants, that choke out the existing wildlife.
Farming is the main supply for a country back then. The crops that farmers produce basically was the only food supply. That makes famers a very important part of society. Farmers back t...
The presence of the Burmese python is negatively affecting the Everglades. The invasion of the python was totally a man-made event. People would buy the Burmese python from exotic pet dealers completely unaware of how big the python could get, which is up to 23 feet long and up to 200 pounds. The Burmese python has chemical receptors in their tongues along with heat sensors on their jaws which allow the animal to hunt for their prey in the night. This helps the python massively because without those abilities it'd
During the summers the oxygen content atop the water normally has a salinity level consistent with “more than 8 milligrams per liter”; but when oxygen content drops down to “less than 2 milligrams per liter” the water is then known to be in hypoxic state (CENR, 2000; USGS, 2006). Hypoxia is the result of oxygen levels decreasing to the point where aquatic organisms can no longer survive in the water column. Organisms such as fish, shrimps, and crabs are capable to evacuate the area but the fauna that cannot move either become stress and/or die. Due to this, many call the hypoxia zone the “dead zone” (Overview, 2008; USGS, 2006).
And last but not least, the water that we use to drink is also being affected. According to the text “Water quality nearly halts Everglades restorations” on page 117 it states, “The concern about the water quality stems from the amount of phosphorous present in the water. Phosphorous is found in fertilizer, decaying soil, and animal waste.” That means the fertilizer from the sugarcane crops is causing toxic water quality. It has an effect on animals because the water they drink can have phosphorous present in the water.
Today, unlike most Saturday morning in Florida, hot and humid, it is perfect. The weather is not humid or hot, it is about 80 out, with a genital breeze. Being in a fresh water area, the humidity seems to be lower than what would be expected. The corkscrew swamp is a long-standing tourist attraction. The sanctuary protects one of the largest Pond Cypress and Bald Cypress trees in the nation. The 700 acres were bought in 1954 after the locals raised money to buy the land from loggers. The Swamp is a part of a 60,000-acre watershed. The rain from Lake Trafford fills it then the water travels south and west to the Gulf of Mexico. The water shed is important for the preservation of the wildlife habitat. (1) There is a beautiful boardwalk
How does the vegetation surface type affect the amount of runoff? Speculate why this happens.
Located in sunny south florida, Everglades National Park is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States(NPS). It’s amazing, rare, and endangered wildlife and vegetation attracts tourists from all over the world. It is even known as “The River of Grass” for its abundance of sawgrass. Unlike most of the parks studied throughout the semester, Everglades National Park lies in the Atlantic Coastal Plain with a lower elevation. Visiting this park will be personally interesting for me because it is located close by my house and I’ve always known about its interesting features, but I never really took time to visit or cherish its beauty. Therefore, planning a trip and learning about the geology of Everglades National Park realistically
part in conservation. Both in and out of the park, zoos and their scientist do
It is hard to establish a large area of protected land because one problem is simply crowding and too many people at one time visiting the parks. Many national parks now limit driving through the parks, and instead, require visitors to park outside the park and ride shuttles while inside the park. Threats to wildlife exist in many national parks. New efforts are being made to educate people about the importance of leaving wildlife alone. Development just outside park boundaries is everywhere. Hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and tourist attractions detract from the parks. They also contribute animals being killed by traffic. Invasive species are also a problem for many national parks. They affect the native species in the park and harm park ecosystems. Air pollution is a serious threat to many parks. The pollution not only limits visibility and detracts from the beauty of the parks, but it also harms the health of people and wildlife.
One of the major proposed plans is habitat restoration of land that has been previously disturbed due to agriculture. As a result of this land use, habitat damage has ensued, and so park managers would review current habitats to develop ecosystem restoration plans that will enhance the habitat quality over a sustainable period of time. They would use methods such as controlled hunting to reduce the population of white-tailed deer, and fire to remove vegetation which is dominating the landscape. Another proposed long-term plan would be for the park to work with its partners such as MEC and local businesses to understand the structure of the Thousand Islands region as a whole, which will lead to more informed and prepared management decisions that can have a lasting beneficial
..., power plants, roads, public transportation. This is demonstrated when all the trees were clear-cut a urban sprawl took place which is when a city expands so fast that it expands into the countryside. The built a lot of infrastructure to support the fast changing they weren't build “up to code”. This damages the land and makes it so the previous ecosystem can’t try to fix itself.
Fire at any level can be devastating, yet the effects that wildfires have on every worldwide country really has left its mark on the land. As written by world renowned wild fire spokesperson Smokey the Bear, “Every year, wildfires sweeps through parts of the United States setting wilderness and homes ablaze. On average these raging infernos destroy about four to five million acres of land a year. But in 2012, wildfire burned more than 9.3 million acres, an area about the size of Massachusetts and Connecticut combined” (U.S. Wildfires). Destroying homes, crops, towns and of course forests. Yet the effects of these fires can be seen from a negative perspective as well as some positive. Plus there are natural causes as well as manmade that makes these destructive fires erupt and become almost unstoppable in seconds.
Farmers clear land, withdrawing large quantities of water from local sources and introducing pesticides and chemical fertilizers to the environment.
Agriculture is the major farming activity. Agriculture's scale means not only that large area is directly affected, but that local and even regional climates can be affected. The draining of water from rivers and watersheds for irrigation leads to drier natural habitats. Those rivers that receive runoff from farmland are often poisoned by excessive nutrients and pesticides.
The branch of science that deals with how living things, including humans, are related to their surroundings is called ecology . The Earth supports some 5 million species of plants, animals, and microorganisms. These interact and influence their surroundings, forming a vast network of interrelated environmental systems called ecosystems. The arctic tundra is an ecosystem and so is a Brazilian rain forest. The islands of Hawaii are a relatively isolated ecosystem. If left undisturbed, natural environmental systems tend to achieve balance or stability among the various species of plants and animals. Complex ecosystems are able to compensate for changes caused by weather or intrusions from migrating animals and are therefore usually said to be more stable than simple ecosystems. A field of corn has only one dominant species, the corn plant, and is a very simple ecosystem. It is easily destroyed by drought, insects, disease, or overuse. A forest may remain relatively unchanged by weather that would destroy a nearby field of corn, because the forest is characterized by greater diversity of plants and animals. Its complexity gives it stability.